When corals are stressed by pollution, high water temperatures or other environmental changes, they can lose the microscopic algae living inside them and on which they depend for food. As a result, they turn white, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. They will not die straight away, but it will be game over if the stress continues long enough for them to starve.

From Biology News - Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology via This RSS Feed.